One of my favourite recent musical memories is of a song called ‘Love is a Losing Game’ by Amy Winehouse. As a fan of the blues artists of the early and mid 20th century, when I first heard Amy Winehouse, I immediately became enthralled with her music. One night I was out in London with my sisters, my best friend and my mother, and I met Amy. She was behind the bar, fixing her own drink, and she said to me ‘would you like to come over to my house and I can play some songs for you?’ Of course we followed her to her house, which was a right mess, but she sat there cross-legged in the middle of the floor in her dishevelled living room, drinking from a giant jug of sake she said she had received as a gift, and she played guitar and sang so soulfully and so perfectly, song after song, just for us. She sang her own songs, but also some very obscure 1930s songs, and even some of my mother’s favourite 60s songs, songs I had never even heard of! I will never forget her knowledge of music, and the beauty, tragedy and truth that came from her own inimitable voice, a voice with something so much more than a technically talented pop songstress. I was so moved by her, and what I will always believe is that she is the closest thing our generation will ever have to a legend like Billie Holiday.
They Can’t Take That Away from Me: Musical Memories That Colour Our Lives
They Can't Take That Away From Me 